Friday, 10 July 2015

Reviewed: The Rest of My Life by Sheryl Browne.

Thanks to the author and publisher for auto-approving me for a copy on Netgalley

I’ve read all of Sheryl Browne’s books so far. The Rest of My Life was by far my favourite. Fun, flirty, sassy, witty and moving, this is the perfect book to read on your sunlounger (just remember to save yourself a cold drink to cool yourself down after some pretty steamy moments!). Sheryl has the ability to make you laugh on every single page but I felt like The Rest of My Life showcased her writing to be even stronger and the humour felt more natural and the kind to sneak up on you and have you giggling away. Leading character Sienna meets Adam as he attempts to rescue her lovable dog Tobias, not talented in the swimming area, from drowning. What a hero Adam appeared to be, until about five seconds later when he’s telling Sienna off for not taking better care of her dog. Grumpiness aside, Sienna is drawn to Adam but soon discovers she is not the only one, as she loses count of the number of women he’s sleeping with on his houseboat. But maybe there’s more appeal to Adam than first meets the eye…

I loved Adam. Sheryl, please gift wrap him and send him my way. At the beginning, we see that he is not short of admirers, and not one to shy away from women, only the commitment part. It’s quite obvious he has a different woman to keep him entertained every night and he appears to be a womaniser and a bit of a sod. Not the most likeable main man in a book, right? But there was a hell of a lot more to his character and he makes it very easy for the reader to fall in love with him (though if you don’t, no worries because I’ve claimed him anyway…). Adam has had a painful past which is of course no excuse for messing people around but he’s not really the type to lead someone on. He’s very honest in his flaws and his quirks and of course, the women keep on coming back to him so he must be impressive in some ways… I think, by the end, or in my case by about page two, Adam is a character you’ll easily grow to like.

When Adam meets Sienna, things begin to change for him and he starts thinking about something he hasn’t considered in a long time, a relationship. He’s sure Sienna’s too good for him but he can’t fight his attraction and the chemistry between them is intense. What I liked about the dynamics between Adam and Sienna is that they didn’t really try and fight their feelings, they were willing to give whatever it was between them a go. And Adam really helped Sienna come out of her shell a bit. She’s quite innocent and I guess a little naïve but Adam could quite easily encourage that less-reserved side to come out and Sienna soon sees him at the very least as good inspiration for the sex scene she needs to write in her new screenplay. Things were never going to run smoothly between them but I enjoyed that aspect. I loved learning about the stories from both their pasts, the things that have happened that have turned them into who they are now. Adam, especially, has had such a challenging, sad life and Sheryl really allows us, bit by bit, to sympathise with him and see the person he would like to be. I think the endearing thing about Adam (one of many!) was that he kept trying and trying but nothing would go right. As soon as one thing was ok, he’d end up inadvertently messing up the next and he was in need of a break…

So I may have badly hidden that I quite liked our lovely Adam and I also found myself rooting for Sienna too but I was so pleased that Sheryl made her supporting characters to have as much depth as the protagonists. Nate was a great, realistic character and could have stood the story on his own. He cared so much for his best friend Adam but he also despaired of him 99% of the time. But what I liked about Nate was that, regardless of what he felt about a situation, he would stand up for his friend when it was needed and push his feelings aside to help Adam make amends when he needed to (again, 99% of the time). I also found some of the funniest moments in this book to be due to Sienna’s dad, who always turned up at the wrong moments, the embarrassing moments and offered his advice and guidance to Sienna even though he was aware she might not take it. Sienna’s relationship with her dad was very warming and I thought quite similar in a strange sort of way to her relationship with her friend Lauren, who also saw her advice fall on deaf ears many times.

Sheryl Browne and Choc Lit feels like a match made in heaven to me. Sheryl’s writing felt better than ever in The Rest of My Life and the flow to the story was strong, the characters multi-dimensional and the plot itself was huge fun to read. It was a little cheeky, a little naughty at times and always faultlessly entertaining.

Cheeky, entertaining and romantic story with a damaged yet delicious love interest in Adam.

11 comments:

This sounds like my type of book, after a review that glowing I'm definitely going to add it to the huge TBR list. I'm interested to know if I will love Adam as much as you did (no stealing I promise)x

Sophie, I love you! I am packaging Adam up as I type. ;) Thank you! So very, very much. I feel I've found my way home with Choc Lit. Thank goodness so has poor Adam. I think this review will stay with me forever. So very proud and pleased! :) xxx